My summer Yenko Project

[Born30YrsLate]

My Yenko Summer Project…yeah I know it’s almost winter…but thought some of you may enjoy this read.
For fun I try to find out what has happened to the Yenko cars sold through Broadway Chev. in Green Bay, simply because that’s where I’m from. So the story starts out like this…about 7 years ago while in college I was doing an internship at a papermill in Green Bay.
As luck would have it my boss was a gear head…back in the early ‘70s he raced a ’69 Z28 at the local drag strip (could also consider this car a Motion Catalog car but that’s another story) …one day we were talking about Supercars and he said that one of the maintenance guys said his cousin bought a green Yenko Chevelle brand new at Broadway back in the day…so I did some research to see if any Yenko Chevelles were sold through Broadway - and there weren’t any so I dismissed the story as a bad memory.
Fast forward to Spring 2008 I hadn’t forgot that story and had the urge to ask my old boss about the car and this time the car came back as a green Yenko Nova with a big block and I also got the guys name.
So with a little checking, this cousin was located so I call him. When I called the guy, he sounded a little caught off guard for obvious reasons, but after I explained why I called he was more than happy to talk about the car. It turns out the car was a ’70 Yenko Deuce and his brother had a ’69 396/375 Chevelle. He did indeed buy the car new out of Broadway - forest green, 4-speed. He also mentioned there was a red/white one and white(sorry Marlin – Gobi beige)/black one. He went on to tell me stories about the car…one was when he had to take his grandpa to the liquor store for some beer…we’ll just say he never rode with him again. Then in 1974 he said he sold the car to Smitty’s Auto Salvage in Green Bay for $50. At that time Smitty’s was buying up all the hi-po cars they could. When I heard that I was sure that the car was long-gone. I asked him if he had any old pics or docs of the car but unfortunately his first wife got those in the divorce.
At that point I figured what the heck, I’ll give Smitty’s a call since they are still in business, what’s there to lose…so I talked to the owner - HOLY CRAP talk about a rude jacka$$! So there was only one option left to bring this car hunt to closure. So I made a strategic phone call and found out that the car is still alive! I was able to get into contact with the current owner. As it turned out, in about 1976 another gentleman from the Green Bay area bought the car from Smitty’s and had it until about 10 years ago when the current owner purchased it.
The story about how he got the car is quite interesting as well. He was arranging a local moving company to transport a Nova that he had at the time and the guy at the moving company asked if it was a Yenko Nova that was in Green Bay. This caught the guy completely off-guard and after doing some follow-up he bought this car.
The current status of the car is that it is nicely tucked away (buried) in a shed with lots of patina waiting to be restored; and it has also stayed local. I recently met up with the current owner at a local car show and this spring the plan is to dig the car out, reunite it with the original owner, and take some pics. This is one of those interesting scenerios where you talk to the original owner first and the current owner last…usually it’s the reverse – you have a car and try to find the original owner.
So that concludes the short story on my summer Yenko project.

[Salvatore]

WOW, You made my day! When you get the pictures with the original owner you can be considered as the Barn Find King! We want more.

[camarojoe]

Cool story... its alot of fun digging for stuff, and even more fun when the digging pays off! I too would love to see pics of the car...

[Schonyenko2]

Very cool Fred. Can't wait to see the pics. That's kinda like Will Davidson walking around my red deuce in Collinsville, all wide eyed saying,"that's the car I ordered".

[PeteLeathersac]

Thanks for sharing the cool story and it's great the car survived!.
Are you searching for more info or do you know what happened to the other Broadway Deuces and the L78 Chevelle?.


~ Pete

[Mr. Chevy]

Cool story.. Love to see some pics. of the car...

Rich

[Born30YrsLate]

[ QUOTE ]
WOW, You made my day! When you get the pictures with the original owner you can be considered as the Barn Find King! We want more.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think I would call this a barn find...the car was known by some to exist before I did my work...I would say I was just able to get all the pieces put them together.

[earntaz]

Holy Cow! I was just scanning thru the registry searching with the word "Broadway" and found this thread. In about the 72' time frame I bought a used Cortez Silver Yenko Deuce there. I know this is a long shot -- but any history on that car? TAZ

[earntaz]

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